Kojima on why 'misleading' trailers are important

Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima does not like when trailers give too much away. He told Edge that it's "very important" to leave "misleading" hints in such videos, so that an upcoming product is never too predictable. His comments come as a response to his rumored involvement in mysterious and Metal Gear-like project The Phantom Pain.

"I do think it’s important to leave hints, but, in a sense, I think it’s important to mislead people with hints because I think if something’s too predictable then it’s no longer fun," Kojima said. "I think that's the problem with many Hollywood sequels; you get exactly what you expect."

"But what I want to do, is make people look forward to a game by watching the trailers and say "'Hey, that looks great.' But then, when they actually play it, they have this sort of epiphany where they realise 'Oh, so that’s what that was,'" he added. "And it all kind of comes together and clicks in their head. I think that's very important that you leave some sense of discovery for the player."

A trailer for a mysterious project called The Phantom Pain was shown during the Video Game Awards in December, though it has been speculated that this game may in fact be an elaborate tease for Metal Gear Solid 5.

Kojima will discuss the Fox Engine and Metal Gear: Ground Zeroes at a presentation during the 2013 Game Developers Conference later this month.